LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth…” (Proverbs 6:1-2, the Holy Bible).

ISKO HAS NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN: Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno has no right to complain about supposed “shoot to kill orders” in the City of Manila, a complaint that is more political than real, and is evidently aimed merely to demonize his former mentor, Mayor Alfredo Lim, now that he is running no longer with Lim but with erstwhile President Joseph Estrada, the original---or better?---“Asiong Salonga” of the city.

For how could Isko be credible in lambasting the supposed “shoot to kill orders” when, all along, during the times that he was still Lim’s faired-haired boy and apparent successor as “Hizzoner” of the City of Manila, he kept quiet about the issue and even acted as if Lim was the epitome of good governance? Sure, “shoot to kill orders” are highly illegal, but Isko, very clearly, has no right to be complaining about them.

INVENTORY OF QC CLASSROOMS: Before Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista goes looking for new sites for schools in his turf, he might want to do an inventory of the classrooms that were built in the city for the last 10 to 15 years or so, and determine whether those that were put up during those periods complied with specifications and technical requirements, so that there maybe no need to put up and spend for new buildings under his term. Is this clear enough for you, Bistek?

MORE FUNDS FOR GOVT’S HOSPITALS NEEDED: Gabriela-Southern Mindanao is right: if a law is passed converting government hospitals into government-owned and controlled corporations, which is what House Bill 6069 and Senate Bill 3130 are seeking, medical expenses in the whole country will become more prohibitive and would result in greater deprivation of even the most basic health care for the poor and the marginalized.

I suggest, instead, that more funding be given to government hospitals or, as in the case of Dr. Leopoldo J. Vega of Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, more leeway be given to them to enter into partnerships with public or private individuals or entities to enable them to source out their financial and other requirements without taxing government coffers too much.

I would like also to propose that the Department of Health should come up with a more liberalized policy on accepting foreign doctors and other medical professionals to train in government hospitals on condition that a similar policy be adopted by the countries of the foreign doctors, and that they be allowed to make donations of medical equipment which our hospitals can use.

LAKAS PARTY IS DEAD? The decision of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats---the party that brought Fidel Ramos and Gloria Arroyo to power---not to field any senatorial candidate in 2013 is an admission that it is now an emasculated political party. No matter how Lakas justifies its inability to come up with a senatorial slate for 2013, people will only see that it is now a dead party. Well, all things have to come to an end, right? This is something that those who are in power now must remember all the time.

US$ 1B LENT TO IMF NEEDED BY FILIPINOS MORE: And so the Philippines lent some US$1 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to add to IMF’s $450 billion global stability fund. Of course, if I am to believe Malacanang spokesmen, our country can very well afford to lend that big amount to the IMF, considering that our dollar reserves now stand at US$80 billion.

But the question is: would it not have been a lot better if that money---which is about P45 billion, more or less---was plowed into the economy by way of direct investments that would have opened up jobs and business opportunities for Filipinos? Yes, the IMF will pay interest for what we gave them. But IMF would have understood if we begged off, and instead used our money right here in our own country. Filipinos needed that money more than the IMF needed it.